Karoline Leavitt is stepping down as White House press secretary, and the race to replace her has gotten ugly fast.
The frontrunner has a history that a lot of America First voters are not willing to forget.
And the knives are out inside Trump world for the man who wants that podium more than almost anyone else.
The Reinvention That Did Not Stick With Everyone
Scott Jennings, the establishment Republican who reinvented himself as a Trump defender on CNN, has emerged as the leading candidate to replace Leavitt, according to reporting from the New York Post. He has been meeting with White House chief of staff Susie Wiles to discuss taking on the role, and multiple White House staffers reportedly believe he has her backing.
But Trump himself is said to be “not quite sold” on Jennings for the job, according to NOTUS.
The audition has been aggressive. Jennings called Democratic US Senator Jon Ossoff (D-GA) a “sucker punching coward” after Ossoff name-dropped Trump’s executive assistant Natalie Harp in an attack on the President. He sent those clips to the White House himself. People close to the President described the move to Politico as a fairly obvious public audition for a job Jennings has been eyeing since the transition.
When CNN’s Kaitlan Collins asked him directly about the press secretary rumors, Jennings replied, “I don’t really have anything to say about it other than, I mean, I would get to see you every day.” That is not exactly a denial.
When asked again if he would throw his hat in the ring, Jennings quipped, “Democrats are afraid of Scott Jennings becoming press secretary.”
But the resistance to Jennings is not coming from Democrats. It is coming from inside the house.
The Record That Will Not Go Away
Jennings worked for George W. Bush and Mitch McConnell, both of whom stood against Trump at critical moments. He has publicly called McConnell “my mentor.” That alone raises flags for the America First base that spent years watching the McConnell wing of the party undercut the Trump agenda at every turn.
The deeper problem is what Jennings said in the days after January 6. He called the protesters “domestic terrorists” and stated they “ought to be treated like any other terrorist uprising with the full force and fury of the US government.” He also adopted the framing of the Democrat Party and their media allies by claiming Trump was “practically and morally responsible” for what happened that day.
Those are not the words of someone with a long-held America First worldview. Those are the words of a man who was, at that moment, speaking the language of the partisan January 6 narrative that millions of ordinary Americans have always viewed with deep skepticism. Trump called for supporters to march “peacefully and patriotically” that day. That is the accurate and complete record of what he said, and Jennings did not reflect it.
Now Jennings endorses Trump, defends him on CNN, and wants to stand at the White House podium speaking for him. That is a significant reinvention. And a significant portion of Trump’s most devoted allies are not buying it.
The New York Post reports that Trump’s MAGA allies are finding it especially difficult to look past what Jennings said in that period, particularly given how closely his rhetoric tracked with McConnell’s. McConnell himself said Trump was “practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day.” The two men were singing from the same sheet of music.
Who Else Is in the Running
The field is not empty. Alina Habba, Trump’s former attorney, was considered a top contender but posted on X that she is “not in the running for any job.” Deputy press secretary Anna Kelly is in the mix. So are White House Communications Director Steven Cheung, former White House deputy chief of staff for communications Taylor Budowich, and Breitbart Washington Bureau Chief Matthew Boyle.
Trump has reportedly indicated a preference for a woman to succeed Leavitt. Natalie Harp, the President’s executive assistant, has also thrown her name into consideration, according to the Daily Mail.
No offer has been extended to Jennings. No decision has been made. Susie Wiles is expected to meet with multiple candidates before anything gets finalized.
But the fact that Jennings is the name generating the most attention, and the most resistance, tells you something about where the race stands.
What This Fight Actually Reveals
The tension over Jennings is not really about one man’s career ambitions. It is about something bigger. The America First movement did not just elect a President. It built a governing philosophy, and part of that philosophy is that words matter. What people said when it cost them something to say it differently matters.
Jennings said what he said about January 6 when it was the safe and socially acceptable thing to say among the Republican establishment. He used the language of CNN, of the Democrat media apparatus, of the McConnell wing. He called ordinary Americans who showed up in Washington, DC that day “domestic terrorists.” He said the full force and fury of the US government ought to be brought down on them.
Those Americans were not terrorists. They were voters who had serious, legitimate questions about how the 2020 election was conducted, about last-minute rule changes made under cover of COVID, about private money flooding election offices, about the suppression of the Hunter Biden laptop story in the weeks before the election. Their concerns were not insane. They were not fringe. They were the concerns of tens of millions of Americans who watched something happen to their country and wanted answers.
Jennings dismissed all of them with some of the harshest language in the political vocabulary. And now he wants to be the face of the administration those voters put back in power.
That is the tension. That is why Trump’s most devoted allies are not simply shrugging and moving on.
A press secretary speaks for the President every single day. The briefing room is not a place for someone whose America First credentials depend entirely on recent television performances. It is a place for someone whose record, not just their current posture, reflects the movement that sent Donald Trump back to Washington in 2024.
Jennings may still get the job. Susie Wiles is said to be a fan, and she is one of the most powerful figures in the building. But the resistance from the MAGA base is real, it is organized, and it is based on things Jennings actually said in his own words. That is not a smear campaign. That is a record.
And in the America First movement, the record is the thing.
Sources: New York Post, “Here’s why MAGA world wants ‘anyone but’ Scott Jennings as next White House press secretary”; Politico; CNN; Daily Mail; NOTUS